What does a demigod have to do to in order to stay conscious for more than an hour? Apparently fighting one of the most famous monsters in Greek History was not one of the options.
Once again, Percy woke up, not knowing where he was besides being in Tartarus. His body ached. A lot. His muscles were constricted as if they had just gone through an intense full-body workout. But, he was happy to find that his movement wasn't restricted this time.
When he came to his senses, he was first hit with an excessive dry taste in his mouth. He was extremely parched, it felt like sand had ran across his tongue and he didn't have the water to wash it out. When he finally looked around, he only saw rocky, dry, blood red walls that surrounded him from all sides. All except for a small hole where a faint glow was emitted from, seemingly leading out of his rocky room. Percy stood up from his spot, stretched his arms behind his back and rolled his shoulders. He was sore, but luckily, he hadn't received any major wounds, just a few scratches and bruises, in his battle against the hydra.
Not like Medusa.
Percy froze, as the thought of the gorgon brought back the memories of what happened before he fell unconscious. He remembered the events of her fighting the hydra before her arm was ripped off, him deciding to save her, using the Phlegethon to cauterize the heads, him defeating the monster with a wall of flames, and finally, him and Medusa making unbreakable promises to help each other defeat the Olympians.
Wow. Perch thought to himself. What. A. Day.
As Percy continued to dwell on his thoughts, he crouched down and shimmied through the small hole. It led him to another area, almost twice the size as the one he was in previously, but looking the same with its red walls. The air was still dry and the majority of the space was covered with a rock ceiling. At the far end from where Percy stood, a dim red light illuminated the entrance to the cave-like space, leading out to what probably was the wasteland that Tartarus was.
It was completely silent, except for a light crackle that he heard off to his side. When he looked, he saw a small, but bright, fire being tended to by his gorgon acquaintance. She sat there next to the fire, her tail coiled up as she sat on the ground. Her usually slithering snakes nested atop her head, sleeping lightly with light hisses.
Percy wasn't sure what he should do, but decided to slowly approach her, not sure what her reaction to him would be. He was standing fairly close, about two feet away, but neither individual said a word to each other.
After a few moments, Percy decided to interrupt the uncomfortable silence.
"Um, Good morning I guess." Percy said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Medusa barely acknowledged him. "Actually it's still night time, at least in Tartarus it is." she replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh." was all Percy said at first, fiddling with his fingers, his ADHD kicking in during the awkward situation. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to strike a conversation with her, he didn't even know how they were supposed to treat each other now that they were essentially partners.
"How can you tell?" was what he settled to say.
Medusa just shrugged her shoulders, making Percy notice the charred stump that used to be her left arm. "I guess being down here for so long, I just got used to the time. Plus…" She said boringly, while referencing to her head of sleeping serpents, "I think something about being a monster just allows me to be used to this filthy place." an almost unnoticeable scowl appearing on her face.
Even though she wasn't looking at him, Percy gave Medusa a look of understanding. He knew that she didn't want pity, especially not from him, a son of the man she thought she had loved. It was obvious that she didn't want to be a monster, who would? Like him, she had felt the wrath of the Olympians, and because of it, she had been suffering for thousands of years.
"Do you hate your appearance?" Percy asked calmly, but still a little warily.
Medusa's eyes snapped to his before they narrowed.
"Of course I do. What do you expect?" her tone was sharp and clear, as if implying the question he just asked was obviously stupid. Which in all honesty, it probably was, except for the fact that Percy thought that she looked fine, especially for a "monster". Unconsciously, he had been observing her facial features, seeing as how this was the first time he didn't feel threatened in her presence. The sleeping bronze and gold serpents on her head made it look like she had glimmering short, curled, dirty-blonde hair. Her slightly green tinted skin reminded him of the many nymphs he had seen in Camp Half-blood. But of course, it was her captivating emerald eyes that stole the show. He had never seen a pair that contained so much intensity.
He didn't know how she looked appealing when he knew that from the stories, and from seeing her himself in the world above, that she was supposed to be hideous.
I should ask her about that sometime. Percy thought to himself.
While leaving his previous thoughts, Percy shrugged to answer her question. "I don't know, I guess I thought it would be kind of cool to be able to say that I have snakes for hair." He said, trying to somewhat lighten the tense air.
Medusa softened at his response, gently stroking one of the sleeping serpents.
"I don't resent these little ones." Her eyes giving off a look of affection, a look that reminded Percy of an expression he constantly saw on his mother. "It's not their fault that I have been cursed this way. In fact, they are probably the only reason I am still sane. Without them, I have no one."
A delicate silence fell between the two before Medusa brought up the plan for escaping Tartarus, obviously wanting to move away from their previous discussion. Percy was shocked at her answer, not expecting what she had said. He wanted to say something, something comforting, but just didn't know what. It wasn't like he was her friend, they were just acquaintances with the same agenda.
"You best rest up while you can, tomorrow we have a long journey." She said, interrupting his thoughts.
Percy nodded. "So, how long did you say this was going to take?" he asked. "A month?"
Medusa just scoffed, holding back a mocking laugh at the demigod's ignorance.
"If it only took a month to escape this Hell, why don't you think me and every monster here has left already?"
Percy thought about her statement for longer than it should of taken. "Wait, so how long is 'long' then?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Try two millennia."
Percy eyes bugged out of his head, Medusa thought for sure they were coming out.
"TWO THOUSAND YEARS? What kind of minotaur crap is this? It took Annabeth and I less than a month to escape Tartarus." He yelled out.
Medusa's eyes narrowed, the once sleeping serpents on her head waking up due to the sound. "When you were in Tartarus, it was being controlled by Gaia and her minions. They placed the Doors of Death at a convenient location so they could get more monsters out, but now, with the doors back in control of the Gods, we have to find them."
Percy had trouble processing the information, but had a feeling that she was right. A feeling of dejection washed over him. His shoulders slumped and he dropped down against one of the dry, red walls, his head falling in between his pulled-up knees.
Two thousand years. He kept thinking to himself.
Two thousand years before he would get out of Tartarus, before he would get revenge on the Olympians, before he would see his friends again.
But one thought in particular brought tears to his eyes. He would never see his parents again, his mom and step-dad. He never got to say goodbye to them. He was taken by Hera where for almost the next year he was fighting in the Giant War. Even after the fighting was over, he didn't have the chance to go see her. The last thing they would hear of him was that he was a traitor to Olympus.
Unwanted tears began to well up in Percy's eyes, uncontrollable to him.
Medusa watched as Percy silently cried. She didn't know what his story was, but she understood the emotions he was experiencing. Despair, hopelessness, misery; someone who had lost everything and didn't know what to do about it. She had gone through the same when she was cursed by Athena.
She put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Get some rest, we will head out in the morning." Before she slithered away to a different area of the cave system.
Medusa woke to the sound of clanging metal. The high frequency tones vibrated through the caverns, echoing off the walls.
She was instantly tense and she was trying to use her senses to determine what the sound was coming from. Cautiously, she exited her small cave into the larger room, her scimitar gripped in her hands ready to strike any possible enemies. When she finally found the source of the noise, she let her guard down, re-sheathing her blade back to the side of her waist. Percy stood there next to the previous night's flames, viciously hacking away on the red walls with his celestial bronze sword. As she approached him, she caught a brief glance of his face. His longish, raven black hair hung low on his face, partially covering up his sea green orbs. His eyes themselves were filled with intense emotions of anger and rage, his eyebrows were scrunched above them, and there were small bags underneath them. He probably hadn't slept at all after she had left him.
"Percy." She called out softly.
He either didn't hear her, or just refused to listen as his strikes continued on the wall, which he had made a considerable dent in.
"Percy." She said a louder but still in a soft tone. The hacking on the wall stopped, and Percy barely turned his head to face her, his body still facing the wall.
"Are you okay?" She asked serenely, trying to look into his sea green orbs that were slightly blocked off due to his hair. He looked at her with an emotionless mask. "I'm fine. Is it time to leave yet?" he asked rushed.
Medusa nodded her head, sighing a bit, but continue to push the subject. "Look Percy, I know what you're going through." She said plainly. "I know that you're in a dark place right now but it will pass. You will learn to cope with it."
Percy emotionless eyes filled with slight anguish at Medusa's words and he averted his eyes to the ground. He knew that she had gone through what he was experiencing, but it was still difficult to come to terms with it.
"I just don't know what to do now, I've lost everything." He said dejectedly.
Smack.
Percy didn't even register the hand to his face until a few seconds after the hit. He looked up, his hand resting on his left cheek, to see the angry eyes of a gorgon.
"What's with that attitude? What do you mean you don't know what to do?" she asked sternly. "You're the Two Time Savior of Olympus, defeating Titans, Giants, and Primordials and you're going to sit here and mope? Do what you planned to do, what you promised to me. Even if it takes us two millennia, we are getting out of this Hell hole, that is the promise I swore to you. After that, you are going to keep the promise you made to me." She said before her tone switched to one of confidence.
"The Olympians did this to you." pointing at him. "They will learn that they are not almighty, that their word is not law, and that they cannot treat us any way they want. We will bring them down…" her face and voice softening and her hand reached out in between them in a handshake gesture.
"Together." She finished with a small smile appearing on her face.
Percy was at a loss of words, just staring at Medusa in shock, his mouth slightly agape. Her mini spiel carried so much emotion and inspiration, he couldn't help but feel affected by her words. After a short while, his signature crooked grin along with a look of determination in his eyes replaced the one of shock and he reached out and grabbed her hand, shaking it lightly to complete the handshake.
"You're completely right, now is not the time for me to be weak. Thank you." He said sincerely.
Medusa's smile widened a bit on her face. "Of course I'm right, you should learn that I always am." She said a little teasingly.
Percy just rolled his eyes and they both began laughing at her remark. Their laughter died down after a while and they stood there looking into each other's eyes with warm smiles on their faces.
Soon though, they realized that their hands were still connected, somehow now with their fingers interlocked rather than a handshake. They quickly released each other's hand and turned to face opposite directions.
"S-so we're heading out now?" Percy stammered, a blush evident on his slightly tanned face.
"Yep." Was all Medusa said, still not looking at him, before slithering towards the exit of the cavern into the harsh landscape of Tartarus, a small dark green tint residing on her cheeks.